It has been on our minds for a while and we have finally decided to take the plunge and launch in North American in early 2015 and we need you to help us make this dream a reality! So head over to our brand new Indiegogo page to find out more and pledge: http://bit.ly/1rHYtMw

Arrow Video started in the UK in 2009 with two cult titles: Lucio Fulci’s The House by the Cemetery and Lamberto Bava’s Macabre. The label ethos was ‘The Art of Cult Films is Back!’ and we still have that on the packaging today. We were bored with formulaic Photoshop covers, all digital and smooth, without personality or humour, and we thought it’d be cool if we brought back those video store days when VHS covers were lurid and exciting. So we had an artist paint new covers for each film but now for DVD – new releases that had everything, great covers, extras, audio tracks and more. But we also didn’t want to ignore the original art so we decided to do fully reversible covers allowing you could choose between the new art or the original. Aside from a few special edition boxsets every release has had a reversible sleeve to this day.

The values that started our label in 2009 still stand today, though we’ve had a few design tweaks here and there to get things just right and these days we tend to restore a lot of films ourselves meaning we can rescue a lot of titles that are stuck in material limbo!

What now?

Since we’ve seen so much great feedback and success in the UK we thought the timing was right to expand into the US and Canada (where rights permit). As we’ve restored so many films we thought it’d be great to make any new restorations available on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our first release will be Tonino Valerii’s Spaghetti Western Day of Anger [I Giorni dell’ira, aka Gunlaw] it stars Lee Van Cleef post-The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and SW legend Giuliano Gemma (A Pistol for Ringo), and is described by the Spaghetti Western Database as featuring “the real deal Van Cleef, complete with gunsight eyes [and] Giuliana Gemma in fine form and one of the best theme tunes you'll ever hear. All in all, this one is a winner.” It also features in the Top 20 lists of the site admins, Quentin Tarantino and SW author Howard Hughes. With a brilliant score by the legendary Riz Ortolani (whose music has been sampled in recent hits Drive, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained) as well as being lensed by DoP Enzo Serafin who worked with Michelangelo Antonioni and Roberto Rossellini among others. The only reason we can surmise that it’s not better known has been to its limited availability on video so far, but that’s all set to change with our new restoration!

Our second release has been described as “positively the most horrifying film ever made”, it’s Mark of the Devil, starring horror icon Udo Kier (Blade, Flesh for Frankenstein, Suspiria) who plays a witchfinder’s apprentice who’s faith in his master (Herbert Lom) becomes tested when they settle in an Austrian village. This deluxe director-approved edition comes from a new restoration featuring both English and German audio tracks and is bursting with extras including a new commentary with director Michael Armstrong, a documentary on the ‘new wave’ of British horror directors who emerged in the 60s and 70s, critic Michael Gingold on controversial US distributor Hallmark, interviews with cast and crew, the locations then and now, outtakes, a gallery, reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Graham Humphreys, a collector’s booklet featuring artwork by Adrian Smith and Anthony Nield as well as an interview with Reggie Nalder by David Del Valle, all illustrated with original stills and artwork!

Third up is the thrillingly bizarro yakuza-samurai-ghost story-horror hybrid from Teruo Ishii, Blind Woman’s Curse (also known as Black Cat’s Revenge). Starring Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion) as Akemi, a dragon tattooed leader of the Tachibana Yakuza clan. In a duel with a rival gang Akemi slashes the eyes of an opponent and a black cat appears, to lap the blood from the gushing wound. The cat along with the eye-victim go on to pursue the Tachibana gang in revenge, leaving a trail of dead Yakuza girls, their dragon tattoos skinned from their bodies. The release is newly remastered in HD and features an audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, a trailer and trailers for the Stray Cat Rock films, a series which would help launch Kaji to fame around the same time as Blind Woman’s Curse. Along with a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by author and MidnightEye.com co-founder Tom Mes and reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Gilles Vranckx.

Future releases include films never on DVD and/or Blu-ray from European and Japanese cult directors, more will be revealed soon!

Why the need for Indiegogo?

Investing in a new and large territory like North America means a lot of upfront cash for the investments we need to make at launch. Apart from the cost of acquiring the rights to the films (more of which will be announced soon!), we will need to set up office, establish our business to retail and digital partners as well as invest in marketing and the development of a new website. The greatest immediate investment will be in the restoration and production for the first batch of titles we have acquired and work is ongoing right now!

Indiegogo is not only a good way for us to gauge your interest – after all North America is a fiercely competitive market – but also for us to have the funds available to pick up more titles for release without there being a big gap in our schedule and have you get bored and forget about us. Without Indiegogo we would need to wait til our first releases go on sale before we can then see what appetite is like for a new label and the kinds of titles we release with the approach we take. Indiegogo enables us to weigh all that up in advance meaning we can continue at our usual pace – which in the UK is about three to four releases a month. Your pledge to our campaign will not only ensure we’re in North America to stay but it’ll also get you some cool stuff at a significant cost saving and if you’re bold a really, really, really significant cost saving!

Whilst it would be a dream to have the Indiegogo met should the pledges go above and beyond our goal we would look to do a variety of things which could include restoring the films we have acquired in 4K rather than 2K, picking up more titles, adding more special features and even more - just let us know what you want on our social channels and we’ll try and make it happen! Look out for our updates to this page (which will be automatically emailed to pledgers) where we’ll let you know of new title acquisitions, restoration news, stretch goals, artwork and packaging reveals and more!

FAQ

You’ve listed more releases than you have announced, how do we know these releases will ever materialise?

We have announced releases that are very nearly ready or completely finished. We don’t want to announce every single title as we want to get things a bit more ready so we can really wow you! As there’s so much to digest here already we’ll be sending regular updates through Indiegogo to pledgers as well as on our social media, so stay tuned!

Will your UK releases like Foxy Brown/Lady Snowblood/Shivers/etc. be released in North America now?

We’d like to bring as many films as possible from our existing UK catalog to North Americabut many are owned by other companies or the studios themselves so we cannot guarantee anything unfortunately.

Will your releases also be released in the UK still?

We will make every attempt to ensure all our new releases appear at the same time in North America as they do in the UK. We still have many titles acquired for the UK only so this will become more standardised as time passes.

What region code will your releases be?

Whilst many of our older releases are Region Free and most are currently Region B, any future release intended for both North America and the UK will be exactly the same and coded Region A and B or region free where possible. Please always read the specifications on our website www.arrowvideo.com (coming soon) or www.arrowfilms.co.uk

Will you release SteelBooks in the US like you do in the UK?

Yes our intention would be to have SteelBooks in the US and UK where one is manufactured for a particular release. Please keep an eye on our website for details!

Will you release films on DVD?

In the UK Blu-ray rights have often only been available for certain titles like The ‘Burbs and Big Trouble in Little China, but every effort is made to secure DVD and Blu-ray rights.

Will you release films on Blu-ray?

Where possible we will always release films on Blu-ray.

What languages and subtitles will be available?

For films licensed in an English language territory it is usually only possible to include English subtitles and the original spoken language audio track and/or an English audio dub. We always make every effort to include English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English language films.

Will the films be available for digital download?

Where rights are available to us our films will indeed be available for digital download. Please see our website for details.

I am thinking about purchasing one of the Gold List items but I want to know how many releases a year there will be and will it be just US releases or UK too?

As this campaign is for North America it won’t include UK releases. As to how many releases a year it’s very early to tell right now but as explained above we currently release 3-4 Arrow Video titles a month on average (sometimes more, where boxsets are concerned of course, but with slight dips at Christmas and New Year) and we aim to get up to that level as soon as possible providing the Indiegogo is a success. Gold list customers get releases ahead of everybody else and these will include SteelBooks, boxsets, special and limited editions* alongside our regular releases so you’ll always be guaranteed a special edition where one is released, and remember if the Indiegogo is not a success you won’t be charged, so go and ahead a be bold, we know you want to!

*This will not include personalised editions. For an example of a personalised edition see withnailfilm.com

If I was to back the All Time Gold List how long would this last? Forever?

I wonder what the guys at Scream Factory would be saying... Or maybe you could say how do companies manage this in the US.

Isn't Arrow Video kind of the direct competitor of Scream Factory, or maybe more of Shout Factory a/o other companies that are releasing horror/cult movies? Do they associate exclusively with certain movie rights owners?

I wonder what the guys at Scream Factory would be saying... Or maybe you could say how do companies manage this in the US.

Isn't Arrow Video kind of the direct competitor of Scream Factory, or maybe more of Shout Factory a/o other companies that are releasing horror/cult movies? Do they associate exclusively with certain movie rights owners?

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They will definitely cannibalize each other with Arrow in North America. I like how it is now. Where if one company screws up a transfer, another one can pick up the slack with their own version. But imagine if Arrow was able to release Demons in both regions, that would keep Synapse from having put out their superior version. North America loves monopolies a la Amazon and Walmart though, so I can see this idea flying where eventually one company wins the majority of the rights. Everyone will then be stuck with their releases whether they are good or not.

They will definitely cannibalize each other with Arrow in North America. I like how it is now. Where if one company screws up a transfer, another one can pick up the slack with their own version. But imagine if Arrow was able to release Demons in both regions, that would keep Synapse from having put out their superior version. North America loves monopolies a la Amazon and Walmart though, so I can see this idea flying where eventually one company wins the majority of the rights. Everyone will then be stuck with their releases whether they are good or not.

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This is an excellent point. Of course, this is only going to be an issue for those of us who went with a region-free player. and thus have the ability to choose the best releases from around the world.

I wonder what the guys at Scream Factory would be saying... Or maybe you could say how do companies manage this in the US.

Isn't Arrow Video kind of the direct competitor of Scream Factory, or maybe more of Shout Factory a/o other companies that are releasing horror/cult movies? Do they associate exclusively with certain movie rights owners?

They will definitely cannibalize each other with Arrow in North America. I like how it is now. Where if one company screws up a transfer, another one can pick up the slack with their own version. But imagine if Arrow was able to release Demons in both regions, that would keep Synapse from having put out their superior version. North America loves monopolies a la Amazon and Walmart though, so I can see this idea flying where eventually one company wins the majority of the rights. Everyone will then be stuck with their releases whether they are good or not.

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I don´t believe there will be two consecutive releases in the same region.

For instance, Price movies were licensed from MGM to Arrow in the UK and Shout in the US. How can MGM license to Arrow in the US what they already licensed to Shout?

Like the Burbs, it´s sub-licensed by Universal in the UK so that can make it´s way to the UK.

For me, they will only release stuff that hasn´t been licensed yet in the US, or that the original license holder is no more.

I think what he meant was: having two competing companies in the same region means that only one of them will get the rights, as opposed to the way it is now where both companies release their own versions in different regions. The way it is now, we get to pick which version/region we buy depending on PQ, extras, etc. LIFEFORCE is another great example.

I think what he meant was: having two competing companies in the same region means that only one of them will get the rights, as opposed to the way it is now where both companies release their own versions in different regions. The way it is now, we get to pick which version/region we buy depending on PQ, extras, etc. LIFEFORCE is another great example.

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What you wrote here is what I meant. Thanks Myron! As far as the way it is now being only good for the region free, who cares? You can buy a machine for very cheap nowadays. When you amortize the $75 dollar cost of a region free machine over the course of every release you have bought, you pay very little to have the best release, regardless of region. My take is that if the issue of Arrow coming to the US is of any concern to someone as per the home market landscape, then they are region free, anyway. I am not a minimum wage earner and hate monopolies, yet the one time I did actually step into a Walmart was to buy a cheap Seikki. I don't have a $700 Oppo or anything fancy, either. So to me it is far cheaper than the aggravation in hoping that Arrow comes to the US at the cost of competing releases that has given us choice thus far. Not an attack on anyone, but if you are really want to have the best movie collection, this is the way to do it, and to keep Arrow in the UK so their releases will have compete with SHOUT! or Synapse. Frankly, they should be more concerned with 88 Films who so far sound like a force to be reckoned with on their home soil. So going to the US at this time reminds me of reading what happened when Hitler sent his army to fight in a Russian winter.

We'll have to see what titles they announce. The last two years Arrow has been putting out the superior products over Shout or Kino. So having a cheaper more readily available version of Arrow titles stateside is overall a good thing.

However, from our perspective, they only really served as competition while operating in the UK. As competition stateside they only really come into play while snatching up titles instead of someone else. They may fill a void somewhere between Shout Factory and Scorpion/Code Red. That is if they remain at the same tier as over in the UK. It's a higher bidding pool here in the US. I don't know if they'll be able to chase quite so many high profile films over here.

"Today we have announced our plans to enter the North American market to distribute our releases. ‘So what’, you might think if you live in the UK or Europe, but this is an important move for all our fans – and here’s why.

A key feature of our releases is their technical presentation. We pride ourselves on being able to work with the best versions of every film we release, whether these are brand new restorations we have instigated ourselves or masters created by our licensors. A constant challenge is ensuring this quality remains high and, on many occasions, we have had to turn down films because a master was not of a high enough standard. Thanks to our now distributing in two territories, that is about to change.

Making the decision to restore something from scratch, and shouldering all the costs involved in doing so, is not easy. With two territories to recoup those high costs it makes the possibility of restoring more films all the easier. So whilst we have faced difficult challenges in the past, particularly with masters made in Europe, we can now create brand new restorations of films where previously no HD or even suitable DVD-quality master has existed!

The first fruit of this venture will be found in Day of Anger, a classic Spaghetti Western starring genre icons Lee Van Cleef and Giuliano Gemma. Until now this film had only existed in ancient Standard Definition masters, but fans will soon be treated to a brand new and exclusive restoration struck from the original Techniscope negative. This film will be released in both the UK and USA in February 2015. More releases, and brand new restorations, will benefit from this new venture so keep an eye on our schedule for the latest updates!"

Read that. While it makes sense, only an insider will know if that is the intention. Maybe it is just what is being said to hide the fact that the financial arm of this company just wants to increase its bottom line or not. Hard to tell. Weapons of mass destruction, human shields, things always get said to rally support but are not concrete in fact, necessarily.

We'll have to see what titles they announce. The last two years Arrow has been putting out the superior products over Shout or Kino. So having a cheaper more readily available version of Arrow titles stateside is overall a good thing.

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Will it work that way though? I'm assuming they can only sell titles not currently owned by other companies here.

Will it work that way though? I'm assuming they can only sell titles not currently owned by other companies here.

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Which is fine with me, as it's another company on the landscape. We're greedy, let's admit it. When Shout announces their upcoming titles, the general response is "That's it?"
We always want more. Arrow UK will continue to exist, to provide an alternative version to our stateside titles (Lifeforce was already mentioned, there's also Phantom of the Paradise, The Funhouse, and a ton of other titles that have full-blown special editions in both the US and UK). Maybe Arrow US will hit up titles we don't already have. That's a good thing.

Which is fine with me, as it's another company on the landscape. We're greedy, let's admit it. When Shout announces their upcoming titles, the general response is "That's it?"
We always want more. Arrow UK will continue to exist, to provide an alternative version to our stateside titles (Lifeforce was already mentioned, there's also Phantom of the Paradise, The Funhouse, and a ton of other titles that have full-blown special editions in both the US and UK). Maybe Arrow US will hit up titles we don't already have. That's a good thing.

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I think it's a good thing too. I think some are just confused as to whether we'll be able to buy from their UK lineup from the US store/company too.

However... I kinda like it the way it is now. I've got plenty of good deals buying Arrow UK releases because I didn't have to pay the VAT. With new genre blu's going for over $20 bucks each in some cases having some lower priced choices now and again is pretty awesome. There's a good chance we'd actually be paying more for their releases if they became US based.

First up, thanks so much for all the support everyone! We are just a few days into our campaign and we've raised 17% of our goal which is incredible! We still have a long way to go so please make sure to share our campaign with your friends, families and mail man to get the word out.

For our first update, we would like to present you with the first look at one of our upcoming titles...

That’s right, Walerian Borowczyk’s long-unavailable The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (its original title, though it’s also been known as Docteur Jekyll et les Femmes, The Blood of Dr Jekyll, Bloodbath of Dr Jekyll, Dr Jekyll’s Women, Bloodlust, The Experiment and a few others besides) will be receiving a brand new restoration from the original 35mm negative, and will make its worldwide debut on both Blu-ray and DVD next year and you can order your copy as one of our perks now.

And if that wasn't enough info to get you excited, we are very pleased to announce that there will be some more perks on the way - most of which will be linked to our upcoming release announcements so stay tuned for some more exciting updates in the coming weeks!

In the meantime, if you have any questions, thoughts or suggestions let us know via the comments section or one of our social channels.

Holy balls :spit: looks like they've raised over $66,000 already in 2 weeks and the $2500 option is already sold out, WOW people have some cash. Looks like they're going to make the goal no problem. I personally contributed on the $175 level, Can't wait to see what they put out. :evil: